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BS455 
.W43 


A.  Welch 


Historical  AddreBS 


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BY 


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ASHBEL  WELCH, 


BEFORE  THE 


Hunterdon  County  Bible  Society, 


AUGUST  31st,  1880. 


.VJ43 


HISTORICAL    ADDRESS 

I      NOV  15  19^ 


ashbelV/elch, 


BEFORE  THE 


Hiiiiterdoii  County  Bible  Society, 


ON  THE 


FIVE  HUNDREDTH  ANNIVERSARY 


OF  THE 


iranslation  of  ll|c  ^iblc  bg  1|}gt(^Ii)}Vt 


AUGUST  31st,  1880. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


LAMBERTVILLE,  N.  J.: 
<'LARK    PlERSON,  PbINTKR  .  TllE    RECORD  OFFICE. 

1880. 


ADDRESS. 


I  propose  to  illustrate  the  value  of  the  English  Bible,  by 
showiug  that  it  alone  was  the  means  of  effecting  the  English 
Reformation,  and  so  of  giving  us  the  Protestant  religion ;  and 
that  too,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  government,  the  church, 
and  the  most  prominent  of  the  so-called  reformers ;  and  against 
the  whole  public  teachings  heard  by  the  people. 

As  we  are  Protestants,  we  may  without  offence  to  those  who 
differ  from  us,  assume  that  the  Reformation  was  an  invaluable 
blessing. 

By  the  Reformation  I  mean,  not  the  improvement  in  manners 
and  spirituality  that  took  place  within  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  itself,  nOr  the  mere  secession  of  a  part  of  that  Church 
from  the  rest,  with  no  radical  change,  except  a  new  head  for  the 
separated  fragment ;  but  that  all-important  change  in  religious 
sentiment  that  involved  the  separation  of  the  Protestants  from 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

By  Protestant,  I  mean  the  positively  religious  class  so-called 
in  England  and  America,  keeping  out  of  view  the  etymology 
and  the  historical  origin  of  the  word,  and  not  using  it  in  its 
more  extended  continental  sense;  and  I  shall  use  the  word 
Church  only  in  its  ecclesiastical  sense  of  an  organization. 

To  understand  what  the  Reformation  was,  it  is  necessary  to 
point  out  the  cardinal  principle  on  which  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  the  Protestant  differ.  Both  alike  believe  that  all  mankind 
are  sinners  exposed  to  punishment,  and  that  Christ  has  effected 
salvation  for  sinners.  Then  comes  in  an  irreconcilable  difference. 
The  Roman  Catholic  believes  that  Christ  constituted  a  great 
corporation,  perpetuated  ever  since  by  uninterrupted  succession, 
calling  itself  "The  Church,"  (or  to  distinguish  it  from  other 
organizations,  making  the  same  claim,  "the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,")  and  that  it  is  this  corporation  which  is  called  "  the 
church "  in  the  New  Testament ;  and  that  through  it  alone 
salvation  is  conveyed  from  God  to  man,  by  means  of  certain 
forms  and  rites  which  are  attended  with  spiritual  and  saving, 
and  in  some  cases  miraculous  effects.     On  the  other  hand  the 


Protestant  believes  that  each  individual  christian  receives  salva- 
tion direct  from  God,  without  any  other  intermediate  channel 
than  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  other  differences  flow  from  this.  I  point  some  of  them 
out  to  be  used  hereafter  in  determining  what  was  protestant  and 
what  was  not. 

The  evangelical  Protestant  believes  that  salvation  is  gratuitous, 
only  on  condition  of  faith.  The  Roman  Catholic,  besides  some 
other  modifications,  believes  that  it  also  requires  the  mediation 
of  the  church. 

One  of  the  supernatural  effects  claimed  for  one  Roman 
Catholic  rite  is,  that  the  bread  used  in  the  sacrament  is  converted 
into  "  the  body  and  blood,  soul  and  divinity  "  of  Christ.  This 
transmutation,  or  to  speak  technically  transubstantiation,  is  of 
course  denied  by  the  Protestant.  This  doctrine  is  admitted  on 
all  hands  to  be  a  test  tenet  that  distinguishes  the  two  parties. 
We  shall  often  have  occasion  to  refer  to  it,  as  a  test. 

Many  of  the  disputes  about  particular  rites  and  tenets,  frivo- 
lous and  childish  in  themselves,  with  which  history  is  so  full, 
are  rescued  from  contempt  only  by  what  they  express  or  imply 
respecting  the  cardinal  point  already  stated. 

True,  most  Protestants  believe  that  there  are  a  few  divinely 
appointed  rites  to  be  observed,  but  which  are  not  essential  to 
salvation.  True  there  are  those  in  some  Protestant  connections, 
whose  views  conform  rather  to  the  Roman  Catholic  than  to  the 
Protestant  principle,  but  such  do  not  like  to  be  called  Protestants. 

One  of  the  claims  of  this  mighty  organization,  "  the  church," 
harmonizing  with  its  claim  of  being  the  dispenser  of  salvation, 
is,  that  the  word  of  God  contained  partly  in  the  bible  and  partly 
in  tradition  outside  the  bible,  is  entrusted  to  it  alone,  to  be  by 
it  given  out  to  the  people  at  its  discretion,  and  interpreted  by  it 
alone  under  the  infallible  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  All 
this  the  Protestant  denies,  believing  that  the  word  of  God  is 
contained  only  in  the  bible,  and  that,  whatever  helps  he  may 
use,  each  person  must  understand  it  for  himself;  and  that  this 
word  is  sent  direct  from  God,  like  the  rain  from  heaven,  to 
every  man,  woman  and  child  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

When  Wyckliffe,  "  the  Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation," 
arose,  five  hundred  years  ago,  this  all-powerful  corporation  had 
been  paramount  for  many  centuries,  and  its  teachings  had  been 
received  as  infallibly  true  throughout  Christian  Europe,  except 
by  the  Greek  Church  in  the  far  East.     Its  decrees  had  become 


in  most  countries,  including  England,  a  part  of  the  law  of  the 
land.  Dissent  it  is  true  had  arisen,  but  it  had  been  put  down 
by  the  strong  arm.  Only  a  few  dissentient  refugees  survived, 
such  as  the  handful  of  Waldenses  among  the  recesses  of  the  Cot- 
tian  Alps. 

The  Reformation  that  ultimately  succeeded  in  Europe,  as  far 
back  as  it  can  be  distinctly  traced,  began  in  England,  five 
hundred  years  ago,  with  Wyckliffe,  whose  anniversary  we  now 
celebrate. 

Five  hundred  years  carries  us  back  more  than  a  century  before 
the  discovery  of  America,  more  than  half  a  century  before  the 
invention  of  printing,  centuries  before  the  use  of  steam.  Ve- 
nice was  one  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  its  commercial 
metropolis,  and  mistress  of  the  sea.  The  Russians  were  of  little 
more  account  in  Europe  than  the  Pottowattamie  Indians  are  in 
America.  Houses  were  commonly  thatched  with  straw,  and 
being  without  cliimnies,  the  smoke  found  its  way  out  as  best  it 
could.  The  floors  of  the  mansions  of  the  great  were  covered 
with  rushes,  among  which  the  dogs  hunted  successfully  for 
chicken  bones.* 

We  can  best  realize  the  changes  of  500  years,  by  thinking 
over  those  of  one-tenth  jiart  of  that  time,  and  within  the  mem- 
ory of  some  of  us.  Fifty  years  ago  there  were  no  railroads,  no 
telegraphs,  no  steamships. 

Five  hundred  years  carries  back  into  the  gloom  of  the  dark 
ages,  though  not  the  darkest.  Morals  were  at  a  low  ebb.  Re- 
ligion among  the  people  was  very  much  a  round  of  ceremonies. 
Divinity  among  the  clergy  was  very  much  in  the  hands  of  the 
schoolmen,  who  are  thus  described  by  Pope : 

"Once  school  diviues  this  zealous  isle  o'ei spread  ; 
"  Who  knew  most  sentences  was  deepest  read  ; 
"  Faith,  gospel,  all,  seemed  made  to  be  disputed  ; 
"  And  none  had  sense  enough  to  be  confuted." 

John  de  Wyckliffe  was  born  in  1324.    He  studied  at  Oxford, 

where  in  1360,  when  he  was  36  years   old,  he  became   head  of 


•Chaucer,  thus  describes  a  fine  lady  of  that  period  : 

''At  mete  was  she  woly  taught  withalle; 

"She  lette  no  morsel  from  hire  lippes  falle, 

"  Ne  wette  hire  fingres  in  hire  sauco  depe, 

"  Wei  coude  she  carie  a  morsel,  and  wel  kepe, 

"  That  no  drope  ne  fell  upon  liire  hrest." 

"  Hire  over  lippe  wiped  she  so  clene 

"Thatte  in  hire  cuppe  was  no  fcrfhing  sene 

"Of  grese,  when  she  dronken  hadde  hire  draught." 
That  is,  this  elegant  lady  had  such  excellent  table  manners,  that  she  didn't  let  the 
food  "sqush"  out  of  her  mouth,  and  fall  into  her  lap,  aud  when  she  picked  out  the  cut  up 
meat  Irom  the  platter,  she  did  not  stick  her  tingers  unnecessarily  deep  into  the  gravy, 
and  did  not  smear  the  front  of  her  dress  with  the  drippings,  and  wiped  her  upper  lip  so 
clean,  that  when  she  drank,  no  grease  flowed  back  from  her  lip  Into  the  cup. 


one  of  the  colleges.  He  also  became  one  of  the  chaplains  to  the 
king.  He  was  a  powerful  preacher  and  writer,  and  a  man  of 
extraordinary  genius,  activity,  courage,  piety  and  learning.  He 
died  in  1384,  four  years  after  completing  his  translation  of  the 
bible. 

Few  laymen  at  that  time  had  ever  seen  a  bible,  and  few 
priests  had  ever  studied  it.  Wyckliffe  however,  like  every 
other  one  of  the  reformers,  and  like  every  one  of  the  English 
martyrs,  with  whose  history  I  am  acquainted,  studied  the  scrip- 
tures thoroughly  early  in  his  career.  He  became  convinced 
that  they  alone  contain  the  word  of  God,  and  that  they  were 
intended  to  be  read  by,  or  to,  all  the  people  as  well  as  the 
learned.  He  was  also  led  by  this  study  to  deny  all  saving 
efficacy  of  sacraments,  and  of  course  rejected  transubstantiation, 
and  denied  the  necessity  of  baptism  in  order  to  salvation.  He 
held  to  only  two  sacraments.  He  denied  the  authority  of  the 
church  to  make  laws  or  interpret  the  scriptures.  .  He  denounced 
the  hierarchy,  pope,  cardinals,  bishops,  and  all,  and  held  that 
no  one  was  the  better  or  the  worse  for  their  benedictions,  or 
their  maledictions ;  but  that  every  one's  standing  before  God 
depended  only  on  his  own  spiritual  condition.  That  is,  he  de- 
nied the  distinctive  doctrines  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  adopted  those  now  called  Protestant,  goin^  in  some  things 
further  than  most  Protestants  now  go.  Of  course  he  held  to 
the  fundamental  doctrines  professed  alike  by  both  parties. 

At  that  time  half  the  land  in  England,  and  more  than  half 
the  revenues,  belonged  to  the  church.  Wyckliffe,  "  the  Elijah 
of  the  Reformation,"  was  disgusted  by  the  wealth  and  luxury  of 
the  clergy,  very  much  as  the  founders  of  the  mendicant  orders 
had  previously  been.  He  denounce(i  not  only  that  luxury,  but 
all  ecclesiastical  endowments.  To  enforce  his  protest,  and  set 
an  example  (but  not  in  the  way  of  penance,  which  he  denounc- 
ed,) he  and  his  "  poor  j)riests,"  as  his  followers  were  called,  wore 
the  coarsest  garments,  and  went  barefoot. 

Confident  that  by  his  bible  study  he  had  arrived  at  God's 
truth,  he  taught  it  boldly,  though  he  well  knew  that  so  many 
thousands  had  perished  for  lesser  departures  from  the  teachings 
of  the  church.  Students  came  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to  hear 
him.  But  he  could  personally  teach  only  for  a  limited  time  and 
over  a  limited  space.  He  wished  every  cue  to  hear  God  him- 
self speak  his  own  truth  in  his  own  word.  So  with  great  labor, 
doubtless  extending  though  many  years,  and  with  some  help,  he 


translated  the  bible  into  English,  that  by  it  God's  word  might 
be  heard  as  far  and  as  long  as  the  language  then  in  use  should  be 
spoken.  It  was  finished  in  1380,  five  hundred  years  ago. 
Wyckliffe  was  then  fifty-six  years  old. 

This  translation  was  made  from  the  Vulgate,  itself  a 
Latin  translation  made  from  the  originals  by  St.  Jerome,  a 
thousand  years  before.  As  the  Vulgate  was  held  to  be  correct 
by  the  church,  it  was  better  to  use  it,  even  if  Wyckliffe  had  un- 
derstood the  original  languages,  and  had  manuscripts  in  the 
original  to  translate  from ;  for  then  the  church  could  not  deny 
that  it  was  real  scripture. 

In  his  preface  Wyckliffe  says:  "  Cristen  men  and  wymmen, 
"  olde  and  yonge,  shulden  studie  fast  in  the  Newe  Testament, 
"  for  it  is  of  ful  autorite  aud  opyn  to  understonding  of  simple 
"  men  as  to  the  poyntis  that  be  moost  nedeful  to  salvacioun." 
This  sentiment  was  the  germ  of  the  Reformation, 

An  extract  from  the  writings  of  a  contemporary  priest,  shows 
how  this  work  was  regarded  by  the  clergy :  "  This  Master 
''  John  Wyckliffe  hath  translated  the  gospel  out  of  Latin  into 
"  English,  which  Christ  had  entrusted  with  the  clergy  and  doc- 
"  tors  of  the  church,  that  they  might  minister  it  to  the  laity  and 
"  weaker  sort,  according  to  the  state  of  the  times,  and  the  wants 
"  of  men ;  so  that  by  this  means  the  gospel  is  made  vulgar,  an(.l 
"  laid  more  open  to  the  laity,  even  to  women  who  can  read,  than 
"  it  used  to  be  to  the  most  learned  of  the  clergy." 

Among  the  people  it  was  heartily  welcomed,  copies  were 
multiplied  and  distributed  with  immense  zeal  and  industry,  and 
read  with  great  avidity.  The  great  Roman  Catholic  historian, 
Dr.  Lingard,  says  that  Wyckliffe  made  "a  new  translation, 
"  multiplied  the  copies  with  the  aid  of  transcribers,  and  by  his 
"  poor  priests  recommended  it  to  the  perusal  of  his  hearers. 
"  In  their  hands  it  became  an  engine  of  wonderful  power.  Men 
."  were  flattered  with  the  appeal  to  their  private  judgments,  the 
"  new  doctrines  insensibly  acquired  partisans  and  protectors  in 
"the  higher  circles,  who  alone  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of 
"  letters;  a  spirit  of  enquiry  was  generated  ;  and  the  seeds  sown 
"  of  that  religious  revolution,  which  in  little  more  than  a 
"century,  astonished  and  convulsed  the  nations  of  Europe." 

Here  we  have  the  testimony  of  this  distinguished  historian, 
that  the  translation  of  the  bible  into  English  originated  what 
we  call  the  reformation,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  Europe 
generally. 


8 

Lingard  does  not  notice  the  important  fact  that,  though  the 
common  people  could  seldom  read,  yet  they  were  read  to, 
especially  by  the  "  poor  priests." 

As  printing  was  not  invented  till  about  half  a  century  after 
Wyckliffe's  time,  and  as  then  for  a  century  more  nobody  dared 
to  print  iiis  bible,  and  by  the  end  of  that  time  its  language  be- 
came obsolete,  it  was  never  printed  till  centuries  afterwards.  I 
suppose  the  cost  of  one  of  those  manuscript  bibles  was  as  much 
as  a  laboring  man  could  earn  in  excess  of  his  board  during  his 
whole  lifetime.  Few  men  could  have  copies  all  their  own. 
But  they  were  widely  scattered  and  read  to  the  people  in  groups. 

The  eagerness  to  read  this  bible,  doubtless  stimulated  the  lay- 
men of  England  to  learn  to  read,  for  we  soon  after  find  them 
more  educated  than  was  common  on  this  side  of  the  Alps. 

But  this  bible  had  to  fight  its  way  against  seemingly  insupera- 
ble obstacles.  Both  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches  strictly  for- 
bade the  reading  of  the  scriptures  by  the  laity,  or  their 
translation  into  any  spoken  language.  The  council  of  Thonlouse 
in  1229,  decree  as  follows  :  "  We  forbid  the  laity  to  possess  any 
"  of  the  books  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  except  perhaps  the 
"  Psalter  *  *  *  Having  any  of  them  translated  into  the  vulgar 
"  tongue  we  strictly  forbid."  When  Sir  Thomas  More,  Chan- 
cellor of  England,  wished  to  read  Tyndale's  translation  of  the 
New  Testament,  in  order  to  write  against  it,  he  first  got  per- 
mission of  his  bishop.  It  ought  in  fairness  to  be  said  that  the 
church  has  since  allowed  the  bible  to  be  read  by  more  enlightened 
generations. 

Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  church,  the  bible  and 
Wyckliffe's  doctrines  circulated  more  or  less  freely  for  nearly 
twenty  years.  The  king,  Edward  3d,  refused  to  pay  certain 
tribute  demanded  by  the  pope  from  England.  Wyckliffe,  de- 
nying the  spiritual  authority  of  the  great  corporation  of  which 
the  pope  was  the  head,  of  course  denied  his  right  to  collect 
tribute  from  the  nations  of  Christendom  and  wrote  with  great 
power  against  the  payment.  This  secured  for  him  the  royal 
protection  against  the  church.  The  victorious  Edward  3d 
closed  his  splendid  career  in  1377.  His  eldest  son,  the  Black 
.  Prince,  the  favorite  hero  of  English  history,  had  died  the  year 
before,  leaving  one  son,  a  young  boy,  who  now  succeeded  his 
grandfather  as  Richard  2d.  One  of  the  young  king's  uncles, 
a  son  of  the  late  king,  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  was 
a  great  friend  and  protector  of  Wyckliffe.     The  queen  mother. 


the  widow  of  the  Black  Prince,  was  also  a  strong  friend,  and  an 
earnest  render  of  the  scriptures.  Though  WycklifFe  was  re- 
peatedly brought  before  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  though  the  pope 
interfered  to  effect  his  condemnation,  their  influence  always  got 
him  off. 

This  princely  protection  would  hardly  have  saved  Wyckliffe, 
his  followers  and  his  bible  from  the  flames,  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  great  quarrel  in  the  church  itself.  Each  of  the  two  great 
factions  into  which  it  had  split,  elected  its  own  pope ;  and 
then  each  i)ope,  claiming  to  be  the  vicegerent  of  heaven,  officially 
sent  the  other  one  and  all  his  followers  to  perdition.  Neither  of 
them  could  afford  to  quarrel  with  the  king  of  England,  even  if 
he  did  protect  heresy.  Of  course  when  the  two  infallible  heads 
of  the  church  were  charging  each  other  with  falsehood,  many 
people  were  lead  to  doubt  whether  they  should  believe  either  of 
them.  Thus  it  providentially  occurred,  that,  until  the  accession 
of  Henry  4th,  in  1399,  bibles  were  multiplied,  and  read,  and 
listened  to,  all  over  England. 

The  seed  of  the  word  thus  sown  in  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
rapidly  bore  fruit.  It  is  estimated  that  before  the  close  of  the 
century,  that  is  within  twenty  years  after  the  translation  was 
finished,  one  quarter  of  the  nation,  and  almost  a  majority  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  were  converts  to  Wyckliffe's  doctrines. 
One  of  Wyckliffe's  admirers  was  his  contemporary,  Geoffrey 
Chaucer,  the  father  of  English  poetry. 

Among  the  strong  friends  of  Wyckliffe,  readers  of  his  bible, 
and  advocates  of  his  cause,  was  Anne  of  Bohemia,  Queen  of 
Richard  2d,  "  the  good  Queen  Anne,"  as  the  people  lovingly 
called  her.  It  was  she  who  sent  the  seeds  of  the  Reformation 
from  England  to  her  native  Bohemia.  Among  the  converts  to 
Wyckliffe's  doctrines  there,  were  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of 
Prague.  Tliose  doctrines  spread  so  wide,  and  took  root  so  deep, 
and  created  so  much  alarm,  that  in  1410  the  archbishop  of 
Prague,  publicly  and  olficially  burned  Wyckliffe's  writings;  and 
a  few  years  later  the  Council  of  Constance,  which  had  burned 
the  living  Huss  and  Jerome,  ordered  the  bones  of  the  dead 
Wyckliffe  to  be  dug  up  and  burned.  The  Reformation  in 
Bohemia  could  never  be  entirely  stamped  out,  and  was  influen- 
tial in  promoting  the  great  movement  under  Luther.  So  we 
see  how  the  Reformation  commenced  with  Wyckliffe's  bible,  and 
went  from  England  to  the  Continent,  a  hundred  years  before 
Luther  was  born. 


10 

In  1399,  Richard  2d  having  lost  his  guardian  angel^  the  good 
Queen  Anne,  misbehaved  himself,  and  was  deposed.  Henry 
of  Bolingbroke,  son  of  John  of  Gaunt,  mounted  the  vacant 
throne,  under  title  of  Henry  4thy  and  was  the  ancestor  of  the 
kings  of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  whose  badge  was  the  red  rose, 
passing  over  the  rightful  heir  afterwards  represented  by  the 
House  of  York,  whose  badge  was  tiie  white  rose.  This  after- 
wards led  to  the  wars  of  the  roses,  which  dekiged  England  with 
blood  for  thirty  years. 

This  usurpation  of  Henry  4th,  as  it  turned  out,  kept  back  the 
Reformation  more  than  a  century.  His  title  being  bad,  it  was 
necessary  to  strengthen  himself  by  alliance  with  the  church. 
To  please  it,  he  tried  to  root  out  the  doctrines  sustained!  by  the 
English  bibles.  Under  him  and  his  successor,  acts  of  parlia- 
ment were  passed,  enabling  any  bishop  to  burn  any  disciple  of 
Wyckliffe's,  and  forbidding  the  reading  of  the  bible  in  English 
on  pain  of  death.  A  man  was  burned  at  Coventry  for  teaching 
his  children  the  ten  commandments  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  in 
English.  Many  were  burned,  many  recanted,  many  left  the 
country  and  sowed  the  seeds  of  the  Reformation  in  other 
countries,  and  a  great  but  unknown  number  continued  to  read 
the  English  bible  in  secret,  and  in  secret  taught  their  children 
and  neighbors  the  doctrines  they  thought,  and  we  think,  the 
bible  teaches.  History  can  give  no  particulars  about  them. 
They  made  few  records,  for  records  would  bring  exposure  and 
death.  The  bible  was  concealed  in  boxes  and  jars  in  the  ground, 
in  chinks  of  walls  and  hollows  of  trees,  and  leaves  of  it  in  beds 
and  cushions  and  chair  bottoms.  Of  course  there  could  be  no 
public  preaching,  but  for  a  century  and  a  quarter,  the  secret 
reading  of  the  English  bible  nourished  and  kept  alive  the  roots 
of  that  mighty  tree,  which  when  it  displayed  itself,  was  called 
the  Reformation. 

Some  Historians  who  see  nothing  till  it  takes  a  public  and 
official  shape,  say  the  Wyckliffeites  had  become  extinct  before 
the  reign  of  Henry  8th,  because  they  had  ceased  to  be  a  visible 
society.  Such  a  historian  is  like  a  naturalist  who  should  begin 
his  history  of  the  growth  of  a  plant  only  when  it  comes  up, 
and  take  no  notice  of  the  seed,  and  how  it  sprouted,  how  the 
roots  reached  out  under  ground,  and  how  before  anything  was 
seen  above  ground  the  character  was  developed,  that  accounts 
for  all  that  is  in  sight.  The  history  of  religion  is  very  different 
from  the  history  of  the  church  ;  one  often  has  little  to  do  with 


11 

the  history  of  the  world,  tlie  other  is  commonly  mixed  up  with  it. 

In  spite  of  the  long  continued  efforts  to  destroy  these  bibles, 
and  through  their  language  becoming  obsolete,  they  were  super- 
seded, and  then  little  care  was  taken  of  them,  a  good  many  are 
still  in  existence. 

We  now  come  down  to  (he  second  act  in  the  great  drama  of 
the  Reformation,  in  the  days  of  Henry  8th.  Constantinople 
had  been  taken  by  the  Turks,  and  Greek  scholars  and  Greek 
learning  scattered  thence  all  over  Europe.  Manuscripts  of  the 
bible  in  the  original  languages  had  been  secured  by  the  Uni- 
versities. The  English  language  had  very  much  changed  since 
Wyckliffe's  time.  A  new  translation  was  needed,  and  that 
direct  from  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek,  not  second  handed 
through  the  Latin. 

To  make  this  new  translation,  God  raised  up  the  illustrious 
Tyndale,  whose  devoted  piety,  industry,  learning,  and  surpas- 
sing genius,  enabled  him  to  make  a  translation  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  all  the  learning  and  ttdent  of  the  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years  since,  had  not  been  able  to  supersede. 
We  read  it  to-day  substantially  as  he  wrote  it. 

William  Tyndale  was  borne  in  1484,  just  one  hundred  years 
after  the  death  of  Wyckliffe,  during  the  short  and  bloody  reign 
of  Richard  3d.  He  was  almost  exactly  of  the  same  age  as 
Luther  and  Zuinglious,  the  great  contemporary  continental  re- 
formers. He  studied  first  at  Oxford,  then  at  Cambridge,  where 
he  read  Greek  with  the  great  Erasmus,  and  became  a  thorough 
Greek  and  Hebrew  scholar.  A'^ery  early  he  studied  the  bible  in 
the  original  languages,  and  gave  lectures  upon  it.  Very  early 
he  arrived  at  those  opinions  we  call  protestant,  probably  before 
he  ever  heard  of  Luther. 

The  roots  of  the  Reformation  started  to  grow  vigorously  just 
al)out  the  same  time  in  Germany,  Switzerland  and  England, 
independently  of  each  other,  but  in  each  case  directly  from  the 
study  of  the  bible.  Luther  had  never  seen  a  bible  till  he  was  a 
monk,  and  over  twenty  years  old,  when  in  rummaging  through 
the  library  at  Erfurth,  he  came  across  one.  This  he  eagerly 
studied,  and  the  result  was  the  Reformation  in  Germany. 

When  about  thirty-five  years  old,  Tyndale  left  the  Universi- 
ty and  became  a  tutor  in  the  family  of  Sir  John  Walsh,  (or 
Welch,  as  old  John  Fox  writes  the  name)  in  Gloucestershire. 
Here  his  protestantism  got  him  into  disfavor  with  the  clergy, 
and  he  left  to  avoid  compromising  his  patron.     It  was  there  that 


12 

he  said  to  a  learned  divine,  "  If  God  spares  my  life,  ere  many 
years,  I  will  cause  a  boy  that  driveth  the  plow  to  know  more 
of  the  scriptures  than  you  do."  And  he  kept  his  word.  The 
intention  thus  expressed,  and  ever  after  acted  on,  was  to  make 
a  translation  for  plain  people.  So  he  put  it  in  good  old  home- 
spun English  that  goes  right  to  the  heart,  and  that  still  lives 
almost  unchanged. 

Tyndale  went  up  to  London,  and  in  his  inexperience  and 
simplicity  applied  to  the  Bishop  of  London  for  facilities  for 
translating.  But  a  translation  of  the  scriptures  was  exactly 
what  the  Bishop  didn't  want.  After  a  year  in  London  spent  in 
hard  study  and  unavailing  effort  for  a  chance  to  do  his  work, 
Tyndale  says  he  found  there  was  "  no  place  to  translate  the 
bible  in  all  England."  So  in  1523  he  sailed  to  Hamburg  and 
there  went  on  with  his  work.  The  New  Testament  was  printed 
in  1525  ;  the  printing  began  at  Antwerp,  and  when  he  was 
driven  from  there  continu^  at  Cologne,  and  when  driven  from 
there  finished  at  Worms.  It  was  circulated  in  England  as  early 
as  January,  1526,  that  season  to  the  number  of  six  thousand 
copies. 

In  his  modest  and  touching  preface,  Tyndale  beseeches  the 
learned,  that  "  If  they  perceive  in  any  place  that  I  have  not 
attained  the  true  sense  of  the  tongue  or  meaning  of  the  scrip- 
ture, or  have  not  given  the  right  English  word,  that  they  put  to 
their  hands  to  amend  it."  He  says  he  made  his  translation  of 
the  New"  Testament  alone  without  help  from  any  one,  and  tliat 
he  imitated  no  other  man's  imterpretation.  He  did  not  make 
use  of  Luther's  translation  as  Coverdale  afterwards  did.  The 
next  year  however,  the  learned  and  pious  John  Fryth  join- 
ed him,  and  was  of  great  service  to  him  for  the  next  five  or  six 
years.  After  that  the  noble  martyr  John  Rodgers  came  to  him, 
helped  him  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and  after  his  death  finished 
what  Tyndale  left  incomplete. 

We  must  now  leave  Tyndale,  going  on  with  translations,  and 
look  at  the  state  of  thino-s  in  Eny-land. 

King  Henry  8th  was,  up  to  about  the  middle  of  his  reign, 
highly  popular,  and  so  deported  himself,  that  if  he  had  died 
then,  no  king  would  have  stood  fairer  on  the  page  of  English 
history.  The  people  were  intensely  loyal.  The  memory  of  the 
civil  wars  was  so  recent  and  so  terrible,  that  rather  than  risk 
their  recurrence  by  opposing  the  king,  the  nation  were  willing 
to  submit  to  any  amount  of  tyranny.     Hence  he  was  permitted 


13 

to  cut  off  the  heads  of  his  wives  when  he  got  tired  of  them, 
send  his  nobles  and  his  ministers  to  the  block  or  to  the  Tower, 
and  to  burn  anybody  who  refused  to  profess  whatever  he  told 
them  to  believe. 

Henry  having  quarreled  with  the  po])e,  the  submissive  loyalty 
of  the  nation  enabled  him  to  withdraw  himself  and  them  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  Rome,  and  to  become  himself  practically  the 
pope  of  England.  This  secession  was  not  the  Reformation.  If 
you  cut  oif  a  slice  from  an  apple,  the  slice  cut  otf  is  apple 
still,  just  as  much  as  it  was  before,  and  just  as  much  as  the  rest 
is.  The  difference  between  the  seceded  church  and  the  residu- 
ary church,  was,  that  the  former  had  a  new  chief.  We  must 
be  careful  not  to  confound  Henry's  anti-protestant  church  with 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  afterwards  established  in  Eng- 
land. Henry  and  his  church  retained  up  to  the  end  of  his  life  the 
same  cardinal  principles  of  salvation  through  a  great  corporation, 
and  test  tenets  of  transubstantiation,  and  many  other  such  that 
they  held  before  the  secession. 

The  mysterious  and  awful  powers  claimed  for  his  church,  by 
Henry  its  absolute  master,  made  it  in  his  hands  a  tremendous 
engine  of  state.  Men  feared  to  offend  or  oppose  the  dreaded 
monarch,  who  could  send  not  only  their  bodies  to  prison  and  to 
death,  but  through  the  machinery  of  his  church  their  souls  to 
hell,  or  at  any  rate  to  purgatory.  His  obsequious  parliament 
passed  an  act  declaring  that  he  had  charge  of  the  souls,  as  well 
as  the  bodies,  of  his  subjects.  This  claim  he  pertinaciously  as- 
serted to  the  end  of  his  life. 

Hence  Henry  and  his  church  were,  from  first  to  last,  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  reformation.  He  often  announced  his  hatred  of 
Protestants  in  the  most  public  manner,  and  emphasized  it  by 
burning  them. 

Henry  asserted  his  power  over  religion  by  altering  details, 
while  adhering  to  the  cardinal  principles  of  the  old  faith — for 
instance  he  reduced  the  number  of  sacraments  in  his  church  to 
three.  He  might  burn  a  Protestant  one  day  for  saying  there 
were  not  seven  sacraments,  and  a  Catholic  another  day  for  say- 
ing there  were  more  than  ihree.  On  one  occasion  he  sent  six 
men  to  execution  together,  three  Roman  Catholics  to  be  hanged 
for  denying  that  he  was  head  of  the  church,  and  three 
Protestants  to  be  burnt  for  denying  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation. 

We  can  now  understand  why  Tyndale  was  hated  l)y  the  king, 


14 

his  ministers  and  his  bishops.  In  his  notes  he  taught  that  in 
spiritual  things  men  are  accountable  not  to  the  king,  but  direct- 
ly to  God,  and  also,  that  the  authority  of  kings  was  not 
unlimited.  Besides,  he  had  translated  the  bible  without  royal 
permission.  Hence  both  under  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts,  when 
they  were  compelled  to  adopt  Tyndale's  translation  because 
nobody  else  could  make  one  as  good,  they  always  called  it  after 
somebody  else's  name. 

Henry's  will  begins,  "  In  the  name  of  God  and  of  the 
Glorious  and  Blessed  Virgin,  our  lady  St.  Mary,  and  of  all  the 
holy  company  of  heaven."  This  don't  sound  as  if  he  was  the 
author  of  the  Reformation,  and  yet  many  historians,  and  even 
the  philosophic  Guizot,  confound  the  secession  effected  by  Henry 
with  the  Reformation. 

The  government  and  the  church,  (or  that  branch  of  the  gov- 
ernment called  the  church),  prohibited  the  circulation  and  reading 
of  Tyndale's  Testament,  under  penalty  of  the  whip,  the 
dungeon  and  the  stake.  A.mong  those  put  to  death  for  circulat- 
ing these  testaments  was  Richard  Bayfield,  in  1531,  who  after 
being  put  to  the  torture  to  make  him  tell  who  else  was  guilty  of 
the  same  terrible  crime,  was  slowly  wasted  to  death  by  the 
bishop  of  London.  He  was  in  the  fire  half  an  hour  before  he 
died.  The  bishop  said  "  these  testaments  in  the  English 
tongue"  were  "to  the  peril  and  danger"  of  his  flock,  "and 
the  destruction  of  their  souls."  And  yet  during  the  whole 
twenty  remaining  years  of  Henry's  life,  during  a  considerable 
part  of  which  time  these  penalties  continued,  Tyndale's  Testa- 
ments and  Bibles  continued  to  pour  into  England  in  an  ever 
increasing  stream,  and  to  be  read  with  ever  increasing  avidity. 

For  translating  the  bible  into  English,  and  for  expressing 
sentiments  that  it  does  not  seem  possible  to  us  that  anybody 
ever  could  have  disputed,  Tyndale  was  hunted  down  like  a  wild 
beast  by  Henry  and  his  church,  all  the  nine  remaining  years  of 
his  life.  We  have  not  time,  if  we  had  the  information,  to  fol- 
low him  from  one  hiding  place  to  another ;  neither  can  we 
follow  him  minutely  in  his  work,  for  it  was  all  done  in  secret. 
We  know  that  the  five  books  of  Moses  were  printed  in  1529, 
and  the  book  of  Jonah  in  1531.  He  finished,  but  did  not  him- 
self print,  the  rest  of  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
How  much  of  the  rest  was  his  work  I  do  not  know.  During 
those  nine  years  "  in  hunger  and  thirst  and  cold,"  in  what  he 
calls  "  bitter  absence  from  friends,"   among  "  sharp  fightings  " 


15 

as  he  expresses  it,  in  hourly  clanger  of  his  life,  this  great  and 
good  man  went  on  witli  his  work,  and  gave  us  a  translation  of 
the  greater  part  of  the  bible,  which  all  the  efforts  of  learning 
and  talent  since  have  never  been  able  to  supersede.  What  he 
wrote,  we  read  to-day  nearly  as  he  wrote  it.  Unfortunately  for 
himself  he  was  some  centuries  ahead  of  his  time. 

From  Henry's  early  reputation,  and  his  break  with  Rome, 
Tyndale  had  formed  great  hopes  of  him,  and  had  ventured  to 
speak  some  plain  truths  intended  for  the  royal  ear.  His  loyal 
and  sensitive  heart  was  almost  broken  at  their  reception,  and  he 
mournfully  says :  "  Very  death  were  better  to  me  than  life,  con- 
sidering man's  nature  to  be  such  that  he  can  bear  no  truth." 

In  1535  Tyndale  was  betrayed  by  a  pretended  friend  sent 
from  England,  into  the  hands  of  the  government  of  the  Nether- 
lands, and  confined  in  the  castle  of  Velvoorde,  near  Brussels,  till 
the  6th  of  October,  1536.  He  then  met  the  death  he  had  so 
long  been  looking  for.  Crurawell  and  Cranmer,  the  so-called 
reformers,  never  lifted  a  finger  to  save  him.  The  ministers  of 
vengeance  had  the  humanity  to  choke  him  to  death  before  they 
lighted  the  fire  that  consumed  him.  So  passed  from  sorrow 
and  hatred  and  ignominy,  to  the  realms  of  joy  and  love  and 
glory,  the  noblest  martyr  since  the  days  of  the  apostles. 

Tyndale's  last  words  were :  "  Lord  open  the  eyes  of  the  king 
of  England."  Like  all  prayers  of  faith,  this  was  answered  in 
effect,  but  as  so  often  in  other  cases,  not  in  form.  God  did 
open  the  eyes,  not  of  the  king,  but  what  was  much  better,  of 
the  people  of  England,  and  that  by  the  reading  of  the  bible  he 
had  given  them. 

Next  year,  (1537),  John  Rodgers,  who  had  been  helping 
Tyndale  towards  the  close  of  his  life,  published  the  first  edition 
of  the  whole  bible,  under  the  a^ssumed  name  of  Thomas  Mat- 
thew. Under  that  name  it  might  not  be  so  bitterly  opposed  by 
Henry  and  his  church,  as  if  it  bore  the  name,  so  odious  to  them, 
of  Tyndale. 

Why  did  not  Tyndale  seek  shelter  among  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany?  Henry,  as  we  have  seen,  claimed  the 
right  to  make  his  subjects  profess  what  he  told  them  to,  and 
to  punish  those  who  refused.  To  a  less  degree,  the  same  doc- 
trine began  to  prevail  among  the  Protestant  princes,  according 
to  the  celebrated  maxim,  "  Whose  the  region,  his  the  religion." 
Henry  claimed  the  same  right  to  say  what  religion  should  be 
professed  by  his  subjects  as  to  say  what  kind  of  coats  should  be 


16 

worn  by  the  yeomen  of  his  guard.  He  probably  conceded  the 
same  rights  to  the  Protestant  princes.  Hence  we  are  not  so 
much  suprised  to  see  him  burning  English  Protestants  at  home, 
and  protecting  German  Protestants  abroad.  Tyndale,  an  Eng- 
lish subject,  being  a  Protestant,  was  in  Henry's  eyes,  and 
23erhaps  in  those  of  the  German  princes,  a  criminal  and  an  outlaw. 
Those  princes  wished  Henry's  alliance  against  the  Emperor, 
and  could  hardly  afford  to  give  him  mortal  offence  by  harboring 
such  outlaw. 

The  man  who,  more  than  any  other,  gets  the  credit  of  the 
English  Reformation  is  Thomas  Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury ;  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  up  to  the  moment  of 
Henry's  death,  he  was,  next  to  the  king,  first  in  dignity  and 
power  in  a  church  and  government  that  did  its  worst  to  crush 
out  the  Reformation.  Whatever  his  private  opinions  or  wishes 
may  have  been,  his  official  actions  and  his  professions  were 
against  the  Protestant  religion.  This  is  best  shown  by  an  exam- 
ple. 

The  learned  and  pious  John  Fryth,  the  bosom  friend  and 
helper  of  Tyndale  in  revising  the  New  Testament  and  translat- 
ing the  Pentateuch,  was  brought  before  a  commission,  of  which 
Cranmer  was  chairman,  charged  with  denying  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation ;  that  is,  with  being  a  Protestant.  The  com- 
mission turned  him  over  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  he  to 
the  secular  arm,  each  of  which  transfers  meant  death.  Fryth 
was  put  into  a  dungeon  in  that  grimmest  of  prisons  Newgate, 
and  loaded  with  irons,  one  of  which  was  a  ring  round  his  neck, 
fastened  to  a  post  in  such  manner  that  he  could  neither  stand 
straight  up,  sit,  nor  lie  down.  After  two  weeks  he  was  taken 
to  Smithfield,  an  irregular  open  space  in  London,  then  and  still 
used  as  a  cattle  market,  and  there  slowly  roasted  to  death. 

Cranmer  writing  to  the  English  Ambassador  at  the  Imperial 
Court,  the  most  public  place  in  Europe,  after  the  condemnation, 
but  before  the  execution,  says,  that  Fryth  denied  that  "  the  very 
corporal  presence  of  Christ  was  in  the  host,"  that  he  had  tried 
to  get  him  to  give  up  that  imagination,  meaning  that  silly  fancy; 
and  so  he  coolly  adds,    "  Fryth  looketh  to  the  fire." 

Another  example  will  show  that  Henry  the  8th's  government 
was  opposed  to  the  Reformation  to  the  very  last.  A  few 
months  before  his  death  the  heroic  Anne  Askew  was  charged 
with  denying  transubstantiation,  and  with  saying  "  The  most 
High  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands,"  meaning  that 


17 

lie  could  be  worshipped  any  where  else  as  well  as  in  a  Cathedral, 
She  said,  as  so  many  other  martyrs  had  said  before,  that  she  had 
teamed  her  Protestant  opinions  from  Tyndale's  bible.  She  was 
put  to  the  torture  to  make  her  tell  what  other  heretics  she 
knew;  which  she  refused  to  do.  When  almost  torn  limb  from 
limb  on  the  rack,  and  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower  refused  to 
pull  any  harder,  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England  stripj)ed 
off  his  robes,  and  with  his  own  hands  gave  another  turn  to  the 
windlass,  and  I  suppose  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  more  of  her 
tendons  and  ligaments  snap.  She  was  carried  to  Smithfiold 
in  a  chair;  (of  course  she  could  not  walk.)  and  there,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England,  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  first  peer  of  the  realm,  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London, 
and  other  great  dignitaries,  the  flames  that<3onsumed  her  lighted 
up  the  darkness  of  the  night. 

And  yet  on  the  death  of  Henry,  in  15^7,  the  nation,  under 
the  leadership  of  Cranmer,  avowed  itself  Protestant.  Though 
•every  officer  of  church  and  state  had  up  that  moment  avowed 
hostility  to  Protestantism,  though  the  council  of  regency  after 
the  king's  death  was  itself  divided  on  that  question,  though  so 
many  of  the  great  and  learned  still  adhered  to  ttie  old  faith, 
though  there  was  no  pressure  in  favor  (5f  Protestantism  from 
abroad,  though  the  new  king,  being  a  little  boy,  could  give  no 
royal  j^restige  in  favor  of  that  belief,  the  nation  avowed  its  be- 
lief in  what  Anne  Askew  had  so  lately  been  burned  for 
believing. 

There  is  but  one  possible  explanation  of  this  seemingly 
juiraculous  change  ;  the  people  were  secretly  Protestant  already. 
Not  probably  the  majority  in  numbers,  but  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  intelligence  and  vigor  of  the  nation.  If  it  were 
not  so,  no  sane  man,  however  daring  or  determined,  would  have 
•dared  to  undertake  the  change.  The  iron-nerved  Bismark 
would  have  shrunk  back  in  terror  from  such  an  attempt.  And 
yet  Cranmer,  the  most  timid  of  meii,  going  with  the  current, 
announced  Protestantism  as  the  religion  of  the  nation,  and  its 
most  daring  and  bitter  opponents  made  little  resistance. 

Cranmer  did  not  make  the  Reformation;  it  made  him.  He 
only  officially  recognized,  announced,  expressed  and  organized 
what  already  existed.  He  expressed  it  nearly  in  the  language  of 
Geneva;  he  organized  it  after  the  existing  forms. 

As  in  some  region  blest  with  abundant  rains,  little  rills  are 
formed  in  the  .secluded  nooks  of  the  hills,  and  flow  together   in 


18' 

flecrec}"  and  silence  to  form  larger  streams,  aud  they  to  form  still 
larger,  until  some  great  obstruction  holds  them  all  back  fur 
awhile,  and  then  when  that  obstruction  is  removed,  the  waters^ 
unseen  and  unheard  before,^  burst  forth  into- a  magnificent  river 
tlovving  in  full  view  across  the  plains  ;  so  watered  by  the  wor(J 
of  God  in  the  mother  tongue,  the  English  Reformatio-n,  origin- 
rng  at  the  fireside  of  castle  aind  cottage,  in  the  boudoir  and  by 
the  wash  tub,  in  the  counting  room  and  at  the  work  bench,  \n 
the  lawyer's  chambers  and  in  the  curate's  study,  all  in  enforced 
secrecy  and  silence,  as  soon  as  Henry,,  the  great  obstruction,  wa» 
removefl,  burst  forth  all  at  once  and  mo-ved  majestically  on  in  the 
sight  of  all  the  world. 

It  is  no^t  material  to  the  present  question,  whether  Henry,  by 
l)reaking  the  poAver  af  Rome  in  England,  removed  a  greater 
obstruction  than  himself. 

Let  us  look  at  some  direct  proofs  of  this  gro'wing  Protestant- 
fsm  among  the  people. 

In  1533,  a  preacher  before  the  king  said  of  it,  "this  abomi- 
nable heresy  do  much  prevail  anj(mg  us."  In  1536  the  lower 
House  of  Convocation  of  the  archiepiscopal  Province  of  Canter- 
bury, complain  that  the  pbopi.e  have  come  to  the  opinion  that 
nothing  is  to  be  believed  unless  it  can  he  proved  by  scripture, 
and  then  enumerating  other  distinctive  Protestant  doctrines, 
they  say  they  are  accepted  by  the  i>eople.  The  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford laments  on  this  wise :  "  The  lay  people  do  now  know  the 
holy  scriptures  better  than  many  of  us,"  and  these  testimonies 
multiply  in  subsequent  years. 

The  ever  increasing  floods  of  Tyndale's  bibles  pouring  into 
England,  and  the  ever  increasing  eagerness  with  which  they 
were  read  at  the  risk  of  liberty  and  life,  prove  the  rapid, 
though  silent,  growth  of  Protestantism.  Thousands  on  thous- 
ands continued  to  be  imported  every  year,  concealed  in  bags  of 
grain  or  bales  of  cloth,  for  twenty  years.  Apprentices  clubbecJ 
together  to  buy  a  testament.  A  contemporary  writei"  says : 
"  Every  man  has  a  bible." 

The  nation  became  Protestant  by  reading  the  English  bible. 
It  was  not  by  public  teaching;  that  was  put  down  by  the  strong 
arm.  Some  that  attempted  it  were  sent  to  Smithfield,  and  went 
up  in  chariots  of  fire.  Ridley  languished  in  the  Tower.  Honest 
old  Hugh  Latimer,  brave  as  he  was,  shrank  back.  It  was  not 
the  writings  of  Luther  that  made  England  Protestant.  They 
were  prohibited,  and  there  was  no  such  eagerness  for  them  as 


19 

to  break  through  the  prohibition.  The  distinctive  doctrines  of 
Luther  did  not  prevail  in  Englaud.  The  light  that  illuminated 
England  was  of  a  different  color  from  that  wliich  shone  out  in 
Germany.  The  contemporary  reformations  in  England,  Swit- 
zerland and  Germany,  led  by  Tyndale,  Zuinglius  and  Luther 
resi)ectively,  were  quite  independent  of  each  other.  Each 
started  froui  the  bible.  In  England  it  was  carried  on  by  the 
bible  alone,  without  public  teaching.  In  Switzerland  and  Ger- 
many it  was  by  the  bible  and  public  teaching.  As  Luther  and 
the  German  Reformation  were  most  prominent,  contemporary 
writers  sometimes  very  incorrectly  called  all  Protestants  Lu- 
therans. 

A  great  ecclesiastical  body  in  Henry's  time  bore  witness 
that  the  people  got  their  religion  from  the  English  bible,  by 
calling  it  "  that  great  book  of  heresy." 

The  character  of  the  religion  of  the  people  after  Henry's 
death,  shows  that  it  came  direct  from  the  bible ;  and  they  ex- 
pressed it  in  bible  language. 

When  the  Reformation  in  England,  which  had  been  kept 
alive  by  Wycklitfe's  bible,  expanded  under  the  influence  of 
Tyndale's,  it  was  at  first  especially  among  the  people ;  not 
among  the  great  and  learned  till  afterwards.  In  1529  the  Con- 
vocation boasted,  that  "  in  the  crime  of  heresy,  thanked  be  God, 
there  hath  no  notable  person  believed  in  our  time."  Plain 
people  and  the  less  learned  inferior  clergy,  became  Protestants 
sooner  than  those  of  greater  pretensions  like  Cranmer,  (who 
himself  says,  he  wasted  six  years  in  scholastic  divinity,  and  that  he 
came  to  the  truth  slowly  and  little  by  little),  because  their  heads 
were  not  so  full  of  the  rubbish  of  the  dark  ages  and  the  quib- 
bles of  Scotists  and  Thomists.  All  got  their  instructions  from 
the  scriptures,  but  the  scholars  got  it  sooner  than  the  teachers. 
The  leaders  were  led.  The  English  Reformation  did  not  come 
from  the  people  in  power,  but  from  the  power  of  the  people. 

After  Henry's  death  there  were  multitudes  of  Protestant 
congregations,  and  but  few  ministers  able  to  preach  to  them. 
Hence  the  necessity  for  the  Homilies  and  for  a  liturgy. 

The  real  kingdom  of  God  in  England  came  not  with  obser- 
vation. Its  movements,  as  so  often  in  other  cases,  had  little  to 
do  with  great  men  or  governments  or  ecclesiastical  organiza 
tions.  It  grew  up  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  from  the  seed 
of  the  word  as  found  in  the  English  bible,  without  external 
aid,  except  that  it  was  warmed  up  by  the  fires  of  Smithfield, 


20 

and  against  the  opposition  of  church  and  state,  and  of  the 
most  prominent  of  the  so-called  reformers,  and  of  the  whole 
public  teachings  of  the  time.  For  that  bible  in  English  they 
were  indebted  to  John  Wyckliffe  and  William  Tyndale. 

Justice  requires  a  few  words  more  about  Tyndale.  Badly 
as  his  enemies  treated  him  in  his  lifetime,  they  have  done 
but  little  worse  than  his  friends,  the  Protestants,  since  his 
death.  He  expressed  or  implied  opinions  universally  received 
among  us  now,  but  distasteful  to  the  rulers  of  that  time,  both 
in  church  and  state.  Hence  Crumwell  and  Cranmer  denounc- 
ed him,  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  Chancellor  of  England,  wrote 
a  big  book  against  him.  And  when  Cranmer  afterwards  su- 
perintended the  issue  of  bibles,  and  adopted  Tyndale's  with 
a  few  alterations,  because  he  could  get  nothing  else  as  good, 
those  bibles  were  always  called  by  somebody  else's  name. 

It  was  the  same  way  with  King  James  1st.  The  divine 
right  and  unlimited  power  of  kings,  and  their  right  to  con- 
trol the  religion  of  their  subjects,  were  fundamental  principles, 
dear  to  the  heart  of  "  the  Lord's  Anointed,"  as  James  loved  to 
be  called.  It  was  for  attempting  to  enforce  the  first  of  these, 
that  his  son  Charles  1st  lost  his  head,  and  for  asserting  the 
second,  that  his  grandson  James  2(1  lost  his  crown.  Of  course 
James  and  his  flatterers,  in  and  out  of  tiie  church,  could  not 
abide  Tyndale,  for  he  had  dared  to  speak  for  freedom.  So  when 
great  and  learned  men  were  appointed  by  James  to  make  a  new 
translation  of  the  scriptures,  they  were  cautioned  to  have  as  lit- 
tle to  do  with  Tyndale  as  possible. 

But,  with  the  advantage  of  all  the  new  light  that  had  shone 
out  in  the  eighty  years  since  Tyndale's  death,  with  the  benefit 
of  other  modern  translations,  with  every  facility  such  as  the  li- 
braries of  all  Europe,  and  under  the  sunshine  of  royal  favor, 
those  great  and  learned  men  were  unable  to  make  a  translation 
of  the  New  Testament  as  good  as  poor,  destitute,  hunted  down, 
Tyndale  had  made,  and  so  they  properly  adopted  Tyndale's 
translation.  That  was  all  right ;  the  wrong  was  that  they  gave 
him  no  credit  for  it.  It  is  true  they  did  really  retranslate  some 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  they  made  some  verbal  altera- 
tions in  Tyndale's  translation,  sometimes  for  the  better,  sometimes 
for  the  worse.  And  James  really  did  a  great  service  by  estab- 
lishing a  standard  version. 

The  men  who  from  Coverdale  and  Cranmer  down  to  King 
James,  have  adopted  Tyndale's  translation,  altered  a  few  words, 


21 

and  then  called  it  by  their  own  names,  have  done  it,  not,  I  snp- 
pose,  to  steal  the  credit  of  his  work,  but  to  disconnect  it  from 
a  name  odious  to  despotic  ears.  But  the  sentiments  that  made 
his  name  odious  beinj^j  axioms  among  us,  and  dear  to  our  hearts, 
we  should  undo  the  wrong,  which  for  three  centuries  and  a  half 
has  been  doing  to  the  author  of  this  incomparable  translation, 
and  the  champion  of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Instead  of 
that,  in  our  popular  accounts  of  the  English  bible,  Tyndale's 
work  is  ignored,  or  only  mentioned  as  one  of  several  superseded 
translations,  and  the  whole  credit  of  our  present  English  bible 
IS  given  to  King  James'  revisers.  We  speak  of  King  James' 
translation  of  the  New  Testament,  made  two  and  a  half  centuries 
ago,  instead  of  King  James'  revised  edition  of  Tvndale's  trans- 
lation, made  three  and  a  half  centuries  ago.  When  false  phases 
get  into  history,  they  continue  to  be  repeated  long  after  their 
falsehood  is  exposed. 

The  estimate  of  Tyndale  commonly  presented  now,  even  in 
Protestant  and  Republican  America,  is  that  handed  down  from 
Henry  and  James  and  their  satellites.  Good  and  just  men 
among  us,  speak  as  if  they  too  were  in  the  plot  to  blot  Tyndale's 
name  from  the  page  of  history.  It  is  as  if  we  should  take  our 
estimate  of  the  Apostle  Paul  from  the  High  Priest  and  the 
Sanhedrim. 

To  show  that  our  present  New  Testament  is  really  Tyndale's, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  compare  this  old  book  (Tyndale's  edition 
of  1549,  edited  by  John  Rodgers),  with  this  pulpit  copy.  The 
New  Testament  is  substantially  the  same  in  each.  One  word  is 
sometimes  substituted  for  another,  but  James'  revisers  seldom 
recast  a  sentence. 

A  distinguished  Roman  Catholic  author  says  :  "  The  uncom- 
mon beauty  and  marvelous  English  of  the  Protestant  bible  is 
one  of  the  great  strongholds  of  heresy,"  {i.  e.,  Protestantism)  "  in 
"this  country.  It  liv'es  on  the  car  like  music  that  can  never  be 
forgotten."  That  music  is  Tyndale's.  The  tone,  the  pathos,  the 
rhythm  and  ring,  are  his. 

How  closely  they  followed  Tyndale  is  best  shown  by  an  ex- 
ample. In  the  last  verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  Philippians, 
Tyndale  has  the  clause,  "  change  our  vile  body,"  meaning  our 
lowly  body ;  vile  expressing  the  very  humble  condition  of  a 
villien,  that  is  of  a  kind  of  bondman,  who  tilled  the  land.  But 
in  King  James'  time  villienage  had  almost  ceased,  and  villien 
had  come  to  mean  not  a  bondman,  but  a  detestable  scamp,  and  is 


22 

constantly  so  used  by  Shakespeare  just  before  James'  time;  and 
vile  had  come  to  mean,  not  humble,  but,  as  now,  detestable. 
Nevertheless  the  revisers  copied  the  clause  just  as  it  stood  in 
Tyndale,  including  the  word  vile,  and  thus  made  the  passage 
mean  something  at  which  the  Apostle  Paul,  the  writer  of  the 
original,  would  have  been  shocked.  The  clause  is  not  a  literal 
translation;  that  would  be,  "transform  the  body  of  our  humilia- 
tion," or  as  the  Rhiems  (Roman  Catholic)  Testament  has  it,  "  Re- 
form the  body  of  our  lowness."  They  did  not  adopt  any  one  of  the 
many  phrases  that  would  have  expressed  the  meaning,  but  copied 
a  phrase  which  had  come  to  mean  something  very  different. 
It  is  certain  that  in  this  case  they  did  not  translate,  but  only 
copied.  And  so  we  might  cite  many  other  cases  where  they 
copied  words  whose  meaning  had  changed,  or  which  had  became 
obsolete. 

In  many  cases  kijig  James'  revisers  have  substituted  words  of 
Latin  origin  for  Tyndale's  Saxon  words,  intended  for  the  plough 
boy.  For  example,  "  convenient,"  meaning  becoming,  is  sub- 
stituted for  Tyndale's  "comly;"  "communicate,"  meaning 
participate,  for  "  have  part  "  ;  "  mystery,"  meaning  something 
unknown,  for  "secret" ;  and  "  prevent,"  meaning  to  precede, 
for  "  come  before."  Tyndale's  Saxon  continues  to  mean  what 
he  meant  by  it,  and  is  still  a  correct  translation  of  the  original. 
James'  words  of  Latin  origin  mean  something  very  different 
from  what  they  did  in  his  time. 

The  most  remarkable  case  of  this  kind  is  the  substitution  of 
the  word  "  charity  "  for  Tyndale's  word  "  love,"  especially  in 
the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians.  It  is  said  that 
this  change  was  made  by  James'  express  order.  Now  whatever 
the  Latin  word  anglicised  into  charity  may  mean,  charity  in 
its  modern  sense  does  not  express  the  idea  intended  at  all.  Our 
present  Revisers  will  doubtless  restore  the  language  as  Tyndale 
left  it,  and  instead  of  charity,  (cold  as  the  proverb  makes  it,) 
they  will  give  us  back  again  the  dear  old  English  word  love. 

I  ought  to  say  here,  that  the  two  words,  vile  and  charity,  are 
the  only  ones  I  know  of  where  the  inaccuracy  affects  the  truth 
of  the  teaching. 

We  might  go  on  all  day,  showing  that  the  New  Testament 
was  not  retranslated,  and  then  when  alterations  were  made,  they 
were  often  for  the  worse.  How  often  have  I  been  surprised  at 
the  wonderful  genius  and  accuracy  of  Tyndale,  when  I  have 
heard  pointed  out  from  this  very  pulpit,  failures  in  King  James' 


23 

version  to  express  some  niceties  of  meaning  of  tlie  original,  and 
then  found  on  consulting  this  old  book,  that  Tyndale  had  it 
precisely  as  our  learned  pastor  said  it  ought  to  be. 

We  have  seen  how,  by  the  genius  and  labors  of  Wyckliffe, 
our  English  ancestors  had  the  unprinted  bible  from  1380  till 
1526;  then  that  they  had  the  printed  bible  of  Tyndale  and 
ijthers  from  that  time  to  this.  We  have  seen  how  the  bible  in 
our  own  language,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  authorities 
of  church  and  state,  and  with  no  help  from  those  afterwards 
called  reformers,  wrought  that  mighty  change  we,  call  the  Eng- 
lish Reformation.     What  is  the  moral  of  this  history? 

It  teaches  us  our  present  duty,  to  read,  to  study,  to  get  our 
instruction  directly  from  this  wondrous  bible. 

We  admire  the  bible,  we  comment  on  it,  we  prove  it  to  be 
true,  we  print  and  circulate  it,  we  translate  it  into  many  lan- 
guages and  send  it  all  over  the  world ;  we  do  everything  but  read 
it.  With  all  it«  circulation,  though  there  is  a  copy  in  almost 
every  room  in  our  houses,  we  read  it  far  less  than  our  fathers 
did.  Good  men  and  women  who  used  to  read  the  bible  on 
Sundays,  now  read  big  religious  newspapers.  Good  boys  and 
girls  who  used  to  learn  verses  and  chapters  by  heart,  now  read 
religious  novels.  From  the  printing  press  has  flowed  a  great 
stream  of  bibles,  but  there  has  also  gone  forth  from  it  a  deluge 
of  other  things,  which  have  covered  up  the  bible  almost  out  of 
sight. 

What  is  to  be  done  about  it  ? 

Would  it  be  asking  too  much  to  ask  every  man  and  woman, 
and  especially  every  Christian,  to  spend  one  hour  at  least  every 
Sunday  in  a  careful  study  of  the  bible  itself,  and  to  ask  that 
every  child  should  learn  by  heart  a  few  verses,  not  scattered 
helter-skelter  over  the  bible,  as  if  the  verses  were  disconnected 
proverbs,  but  consecutive,  say  beginning  with  the  book  of  John? 

People  are  interested  in  sermons  and  get  good  out  of  them, 
very  much  as  they  are  familiar  with  the  bible.  Sermons  I  mean 
such  as  we  hear  in  this  county,  whose  real  text  is  from  the  bible, 
not  from  the  New  York  Herald,  or  from  somebody's  poems 
And  I  suppose  all  ministers  and  observant  Christians  will  agree 
with  Mr.  Moody  when  he  says  that  conversions  are  reliable  very 
nmch  in  proportion  to  the  converts' acquaintance  with  the  bible. 

While  we  are  attempting  to  draw  instruction  for  the  present 
from  the  history  of  the  past,  let  us  be  duly  grateful  not  only  to 
the  Father  of  all  mercies,  but  also  to  our  benefactors  seen  in 


24 


history ;  and  let  the  illustrious  names  of  Wyckliffe  and  Tyn- 
dale  be  held  in  everlasting  remembrance. 


PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Syracuse,   N.    Y 

S'ocklon,    Cah*. 


BS455  .W43 

Historical  address  ... :  before  the 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1   1012  00081   3644 


